


if i'm trapped in your universe, who cares?

by madgalaxy



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Beach House, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Mermaid Minhyuk, Photographer Yoo Kihyun, Yoo Kihyun swears a lot, lee minhyuk was hatched and no one can take that away from me, listen i'm not sure how but this started out stupid and then turned emotional, look I probably know less about photography than I do about mermaids so just bear with me, mermaid au, this is unbeta'd as HECK
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 23:02:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14507391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madgalaxy/pseuds/madgalaxy
Summary: Kihyun goes to the beach to complete his final assignment for a photography class, and the last thing he expects to find there is a mermaid.He's either high off his ass on cold medicine or downright loopy from something in the sea air, because there's no way mermaids are real.





	if i'm trapped in your universe, who cares?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [loveclubs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveclubs/gifts).



> oh god I'm so sorry if this feels rushed and unorganised I can't believe I rambled on for nearly 10k words but I hope you enjoy it!!!

_Go outside, take some photos! Try to get in touch with nature!_

Kihyun is still reeling from his conversation with the photography professor.

_You take great photos but – for a final assignment, don’t you think it would be even better to show some...diversity, in your skills?_

_Diversity._ In other words, they had noticed a distinct lack of landscape or nature photography in Kihyun’s portfolio.

When it comes to photography, Kihyun prefers to dabble in portraits, urban cityscapes, and common everyday objects. He likes to think that there's more to the world around him than what everyone sees at the surface. Buried underneath all the superficial layers that we present to the world, beyond all the rules and functions that we apply to our possessions or our surroundings, he believes that there are hidden treasures to be revealed. Photography is a medium through which he hopes he can show people that although magic may not exist, although the world might sometimes seem all too mundane, there's always something special to be found if you know where to look.

There is, however, one place where Kihyun tends to avoid looking: nature. For as long as he can remember, he's had a distaste for nature and for most things associated with it, like the weather, or dirt, or, god forbid,  _bugs_. It would really be more accurate to say that he has a distaste for being  _in_  nature, hence why he always gravitates towards big cities and rarely ventures beyond the city’s outskirts to take photos to add to his portfolio. He wants nothing to do with nature. Besides, nowadays any amateur “photographer” with a camera and an Instagram account can get a decent nature shot.

That's not to say that nature isn't nice to look at; nature is beautiful, clearly, and the vast majority of people know this already. Nature makes sense to Kihyun. It exists as it is, unassuming and open for all to see. People, on the other hand, rarely make sense, and they can be beautiful in more sense than than just the aesthetic. People are complex and mysterious and contradicting, so he chooses to photograph them instead. It just gives him more personal satisfaction.

But now, he has been rather frustratingly backed into a creative corner. If he wants to pass his degree, and thereby attain a career in the future where he can continue to ignore The Great Outdoors in favour of taking photos of _literally anything else_ , he has to at least try. What’s more, his professor phrases it like it’s a challenge, and Kihyun, who is already full of spite and doesn’t like this professor much to begin with anyway, sees red.

He could have told the professor to stuff it; he could have simply said _no thanks, I’m good,_ before promptly turning around and picking up his camera before continuing to do exactly as he has always done. He _could_ have done that, but he didn’t. Because he stubbornly refuses to back down from a challenge. He also happens to have great confidence in his photography skills _thank you very much,_ and being forced into nature isn’t going to change that fact.

Which is why he’s now miles away from home and from the safety of skyscrapers, of a Starbucks found around every corner, and of sweet, _sweet_ civilization. On his way to the seaside, no less, where there’s sand and crabs and _direct sunlight_ , a whole host of God’s creations put on this earth specifically to get on each and every one of his nerves.

_“Get in touch with nature,”_ he mutters bitterly under his breath as he kills the engine, parking his car at the curb of a little white house. He clambers up the steps to the front porch with little grace before proceeding to jam his key into the lock with more ferocity than is strictly necessary. The poor door has done nothing wrong.

Luckily (or unluckily, depending on whether you look at it the way Kihyun does, which is to say, not favourably at all), his family owns this small house by the sea. It’s ideal for summer holidays and weekend getaways, and as of today, for trips into Kihyun’s own personal idea of Hell. He has already resolved himself to take as many photos as he can in as few days possible before promptly hauling ass out of here. He’ll spend an entire day at the beach if he has to, but he is not staying a day longer than is _absolutely_ necessary.

Naturally, it decides to rain. For three days straight. Kihyun braves the storm for all of an hour on his first day there in the hopes of getting some dramatic shots of the sea and the sky in some great turmoil or something to that effect, but all he gets is wet and angry. One or two of the shots are somewhat redeemable but it in no way makes up for the following day he spends bed-ridden with a cold.

Because of fucking _course_ he’d catch a cold at the beach in the middle of spring.

But Kihyun is nothing if not stubborn to the core, so one day is all he’ll allow this cold to take from him. The following day finally brings with it sunshine and clear skies so he drags himself out of bed, drugged out of his mind on as much cold medication as his body can handle, and grabs his camera before God can throw another proverbial stone at his life. He is going to take pictures of this goddamn beach if it _goddamn_ kills him.

He veers away from the main part of the beach towards a more secluded spot hidden behind a tumble of giant rocks. It’s a less popular area filled with more stones and coral than actual sand, leading down into a couple of tide-pools, some deep and some shallow, which is exactly why Kihyun chooses it. It’s full of little curiosities and imperfections and looks almost nothing like the usual beaches that can be found in most photography books.

Kihyun perches himself carefully at the edge of one of the shallower pools. He can see tiny fish and other sea creatures  darting around just beneath the surface, the water remarkably clear. He quickly snaps a couple of close-up shots, weary of dropping his camera, before getting bored and moving onto the next shallow pool. It’s much of the same, really, and while it’s certainly pretty to look at, Kihyun’s still looking for something _more._

He picks his way further across the larger tide-pools and away from the shore, taking his time to put his feet exactly where they need to be to avoid breaking his neck. From a distance, the tide-pools seem to continue on ahead for some distance, but as he makes his approach Kihyun finds that some of them veer off sharply to the right behind some larger, more dangerous-looking rocks. Rocks that would definitely cause him to slip should he be stupid enough to try clambering over them. Thankfully, he’s well aware that he is not, in fact, a mountain goat, but a very clumsy human with very delicate bones, so he wanders only as close as he deems safe. From his current vantage point he’s able to peer just around the corner to find, surprise surprise, more tide-pools. These ones look significantly deeper though, and they’re surrounded by enormous cave-like walls of rocks keeping them almost completely tucked away from prying eyes.

_This is the spot,_ Kihyun thinks to himself, scrambling for the camera hanging loosely around his neck, and no he’s not getting excited about nature, what are you even saying.

It’s slightly dark and mysterious and oh yes, this is definitely The Aesthetic. Zooming in through his camera lens Kihyun can make out even more of the enchanting little spot, like the way the sunlight dances off the water only to bounce back against the dark rock wall in a brilliant, cosmic display. In the corner of his lens he spots slight movement and quickly swivels the camera’s aim, intent on catching a shot of whatever the hell lives down here. He sees a flash of movement again, something much larger than any of the marine life he’d seen in the shallower pools, but the shutter is a second too late to catch anything other than a bright red blur.

Kihyun squints at the screen on his camera. It’s probably not a starfish since he’s pretty sure they can’t move that quickly. A clownfish maybe? But it looks too big to be clownfish, unless it’s Nemo on steroids. That’s about the extent of Kihyun’s knowledge on marine biology; he has no idea what it could be.

Maybe it can sense him there and it’s too scared to come out. He scoots a bit farther back to hide behind the rocks until only his camera is sticking out, and waits.

A few minutes later, movement across the surface causes the water to ripple out in large circles, and Kihyun’s finger hovers over the shutter button. There’s a flash of red again and he’s about to press down when a silhouette breaks the surface. A _human_ silhouette.

He frowns and lowers his camera. Had he just been sitting around like an idiot watching a diver in a red suit? He peers through the lens again, zooming in just to be sure, and yeah; it’s a definitely a person. They’ve got their back turned so all Kihyun can see is a shock of red hair, which could also explain the red blur he managed to catch on camera. 

So much for discovering a new species of exotic fish.

He’s just debating whether or not he should come out from behind his rock to ask the swimmer if they know any good fishing spots (he feels a bit creepy just lurking around unannounced), when they suddenly throw themselves forward as if to dive back under. And that’s when Kihyun finally sees it, clear as day, poking out of the water right where the diver had just been.

A tail.

A large, red, unmistakeably fish-like tail.

“What the _fuck?_ ” he says, out loud, for absolutely no benefit other than to voice his own incredulity to the world.

He creeps closer to the edge of the water, his camera lying forgotten around his neck, and cranes his neck to peer into what he had initially believed to be a shallow pool but which looks more like it leads to the depths of the underworld.

“Hi!”

Kihyun honest-to-god screams and falls backwards onto the rocks.

He’s drenched in seawater from head to toe, courtesy of whatever the _fuck_ just leapt out of the pool at him, and he spares a worried glance down at his camera. If it’s ruined he’s totally going to harpoon this bitch.

“What the hell!” Kihyun can’t help but stare, unblinking. It’s that red-head with the tail, and his grin is brighter than the goddamn sun. “The fuck are you?”

“That’s a bit rude,” he replies, but his smile doesn’t falter. “My name’s Minhyuk!”

“ _I’m_ rude?” Kihyun sits up so he can glare at this asshole properly. “You just jumped out of the ocean with _zero_ warning and scared the crap out of me!”

“Oh. Sorry about that.” The Asshole, Minhyuk, swims forward to rest against the edge of the pool, propping his head up on crossed arms. “Not many people come round here.”

“Right.” Kihyun pushes his wet fringe back and tries to wring some of the water out of his top. “Are you some kind or performance artist or something?”

Minhyuk blinks at him. “What?”

“You know, a performance artist, like that girl that swims with sharks?” When Minhyuk tilts his head to the side and continues to stare at him, he elaborates, “Dude, your tail; what’s with the friggin’ tail?”

“Oh. I’m a mermaid,” Minhyuk says, shimmying the tip of his tail demonstratively. “Duh.”

Kihyun shakes some of the water off his camera and inspects it for damage. “I mean, I gathered, but–why?”

“Uh...because I was born like this?”

“You mean like...spiritually?”

“Hatched, technically.”

Kihyun can’t tell whether he’s joking or not. “Um. Ok. It’s a cool costume, I’ll give you that; very realistic.”

At that, Minhyuk leans his head back and groans. “Why does everyone assume I’m wearing a costume?”

“Uh, because mermaids aren’t real?”

“I _am_ a mermaid.” Minhyuk frowns, looking somewhat offended.

Kihyun really doesn’t have time for this, but–

“Prove it,” he hears himself saying anyway.

“Well, I can breathe underwater.”

Kihyun wants to call bullshit but Minhyuk just winks at him and promptly submerges himself. Kihyun scrambles forwards so he can lean over the edge to keep an eye on him, just in case he’s actually an idiot about to do something very stupid like _drown_ just to prove a point. The water is clear enough that Kihyun can see Minhyuk waving up at him, and after a moment, he waves uncertainly back.

After about five minutes Kihyun gets bored of waiting around and signals for Minhyuk to come up again.

He’s still grinning. “Believe me now?”

“Not really,” Kihyun says with a nonchalant shrug. “Maybe you’re just really good at holding your breath.”

Minhyuk frowns up at him, and Kihyun would almost call his pout cute but he immediately stops that thought in its tracks.

“Alright,” Minhyuk says, and seems to consider him for a moment. “Feel my tail, then.”

“What?” Kihyun openly gapes at Minhyuk as he starts to pull himself out of the water, hands gripping along the rocks for some sort of purchase.

Besides the tail, Minhyuk is...well. Kihyun can’t quite believe he actually finds someone that’s convinced themselves that they’re a mermaid _hot_. He’s slender but well-toned, his skin glittering like it’s made of diamonds as the beads of water trailing down his chest catch in the light. Kihyun’s hand itches to reach forward and follow the path of a single droplet making its way down the centre of his chest.

As Minhyuk flops gracefully onto his side on the ground next to him, Kihyun has to forcibly tear his gaze away from his body and he swallows hard. He’s not usually one to ogle strangers’ chests.

“Go on,” Minhyuk encourages, “feel my totally-real, totally-awesome tail.”

“I’m not going to feel-up a complete stranger!”

“Why, afraid you’ll enjoy it?”

If Minhyuk’s smile was like the sun before, now his grin is downright sinful.

_Maybe this is all a hallucination,_ Kihyun thinks to himself. _The meds are making me loopy, or the sea air is making me nauseous. None of this is actually happening to me._

Kihyun remains stubbornly still as he determinedly tries to keep his eyes above Minhyuk’s chest, so Minhyuk reaches out to grab his wrist. Kihyun doesn’t offer much resistance and lets his hand be guided forward, shivering slightly when his fingers finally glide over smooth scales. It feels oddly intimate. He closes his eyes against the sensation, unwilling and unable to look Minhyuk in the eye.

_It’s just a really well-made costume,_ he repeats over and over again in his head. He tries to latch onto the sheer ridiculousness of the whole situation in an attempt to keep himself from thinking about it too much and running away.

“Now squeeze it,” Minhyuk says gently, and Kihyun would have pulled away if it wasn’t for the hand still latched around his wrist keeping him in place.

He tightens his grip slightly.

“What does it feel like?” Minhyuk murmurs. His voice is closer than Kihyun remembers it being.

Kihyun has handled enough fish from all the cooking he does to know exactly what this feels like. He’d expected to feel a thigh or an ankle or _some_ part of a human leg covered in hyper-realistic, scaly latex, but that’s not it at all. Minhyuk’s tail feels, well, like a fish. Smooth and squishy and not at all human.

He pulls his hand back, and Minhyuk lets him. “Holy shit. 

_It has to be the meds._

“Believe me now?”

Kihyun’s lids finally flicker open, and he’s met with beautiful, molten gold when he looks into Minhyuk’s eyes.

He feels like he can’t breathe. “You’re...”

“A mermaid,” Minhyuk finishes. He smiles, softer this time. A breeze disturbs a strand of red hair that cascades over one of his eyes. Kihyun resists the urge to reach up and brush aside.

Minhyuk is all the colours of a sunset, and Kihyun _can’t breathe_.

_Definitely the meds._

“A mermaid,” he repeats, somewhat breathlessly. “Right. Sure. This might as well happen.” He feels like he should say something else, but the words won’t reach his lips.

“So,” Minhyuk says after a moment of quiet, in which Kihyun is frantically trying to come to terms with everything that’s going on in his life right now. “Now that you’ve, y’know, groped me, can I ask what your name is?”

Kihyun glances at him, heat rising to the tips of his ears. Every time he blinks he thinks Minhyuk might disappear.

When Minhyuk continues to exist as a tangible entity in front of him, he says “Kihyun.”

Minhyuk smiles impossibly wide, his eye sparkling like the sunlight hitting off the sides of the rocky cavern surrounding them. “Nice to meet you, Kihyun!”

* * *

Kihyun isn’t quite sure what he’s supposed to say to a mermaid, but luckily Minhyuk talks enough for the both of them. He talks about the other people he’s met and the different reactions they’ve had; some people believe him without question, some, like Kihyun, let themselves eventually be convinced; most people call bullshit and don’t stick around long enough to be proved wrong. He talks about the sea and where he’s from, somewhere a lot warmer and a lot farther away. He talks about his family and how they were separated during a bad storm, about how he searched for them for months but eventually gave up.

Kihyun isn’t really sure what keeps him here listening to Minhyuk’s stories for so long, feet dangling at the water’s edge. It’s part curiosity, part medically-induced-high (or so he tells himself), and part needing something to occupy his time as he waits for his clothes to dry.

Minhyuk is loud and warm and excitable, and Kihyun feels like he’ll burn up if he stays close to him for too long, but he stays anyway. He tells Minhyuk about his own life, about the classes he’s taking and the reasons for his trip. Minhyuk makes him promise that he’ll bring photos to show him next time.

_Next time._

Kihyun is convinced that if he leaves, whatever dream, whatever hallucination this is will disappear. It’s another part of the reason why he stays.

When the sun starts to set, Minhyuk starts to get quieter and quieter. At first Kihyun thinks it’s just because he’s getting tired, but the closer he looks, the more he can see a sombre look cross over Minhyuk’s expression. Not sad exactly, more...resigned.

He nudges Minhyuk with his knee. “What’s up?”

Kihyun is used to people deflecting so he’s surprised when Minhyuk says, honestly, “This is usually around the time when people say they have to leave and then I never see them again.”

“Well, those people are idiots.” Minhyuk looks at him in surprise so he elaborates, “Who the hell meets a real mermaid and then just fuck’s off forever?”

Minhyuk laughs at that and the sound echoes off the cave walls. “And here I was thinking it was my stellar personality keeping you around, when all this time you’ve just been interested in me for my tail.”

“It’s an impressive tail.”

Minhyuk laughs again and Kihyun thinks he might be beginning to understand how people can talk about wanting to wage wars and burn down cities all to see someone smile.

He’d do anything to stay trapped within the universe of Minhyuk’s smile, and he’s not sure the medicine is entirely to blame.

“I probably should get going though,” he says reluctantly after a while of neither of them really speaking. He glances at Minhyuk, swimming in lazy circles around the water’s surface in front of him. “Do mermaids even sleep?”

Minhyuk halts the circular motions he’s making so he can swim back to Kihyun’s side. “I can’t speak for all mermaids, but I definitely need to sleep. Not as long as humans, I think? But I do need some sleep.”

“Huh.” Just talking about sleep makes Kihyun’s eyelids feel heavier, and he can’t quite disguise his yawn. “I’m learning so much about mermaids today.”

“Maybe tomorrow you can teach me about people,” Minhyuk suggests, and Kihyun doesn’t miss the way his tone turns hopeful at the end.

“People are pretty confusing,” Kihyun says, smiling, “but I’ll try my best.”

Minhyuk watches Kihyun as he pushes himself to a standing position. “ You promise you’ll come back tomorrow?” he asks, and now there’s something akin to desperation in his tone.

When Kihyun meets his eyes, he knows that very little could keep him from returning.

“I promise.”

* * *

 

The next day, Kihyun wakes up and nearly has a heart attack when his first instinct is to check if the weather outside is nice enough for a walk. A _walk._ Kihyun hasn’t walked for pleasure a day in his goddamn _life._  

He gets up to stare at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, and he barely recognizes the person he has somehow become after spending a single enjoyable day outside (granted, the mermaid might have something to do with it). Still not entirely convinced that yesterday wasn’t the product of a medically-induced hallucination, he pushes the bottle of medicine as far back in the bathroom cabinet as it will go. If he gets sick on this trip again he’ll just have to learn to cope with it. He’s going to face this day as soberly as possible, needing to confirm the previous day’s encounter with his own two eyes.

He grabs his camera on his way downstairs so he can check through the photos he took while he makes breakfast. He’d been in too weird a head space when he got home last night to do much else besides make dinner, question his crumbling sense of reality, and go to bed. It had taken him a while to fall sleep, his brain far too preoccupied with wondering how many other mythical creatures might be real besides mermaids. For his own peace of mind he’s already ruled out zombies and vampires, and he classifies werewolves, centaurs and fairies in a potential grey area. He considers asking Minhyuk about it later. If Minhyuk himself even still exists _._

He’s thumbing through the photos on his camera’s (thankfully undamaged) digital display as he waits for his eggs to cook in the pan next to him when he comes across one that he doesn’t remember taking, and he can’t help the snort of laughter that escapes him as he stares at the photo.

_I guess he really does exist._

He smiles fondly at the blurry shot of half of Minhyuk’s grinning face. He must have accidentally taken it when he was fiddling with Kihyun’s camera the other day, and Kihyun makes a mental note to ask Minhyuk if he can take a proper photo of him someday as he slides his eggs out of the pan. He tells himself it’s for the sake of art. For the sake of preserving something beautiful on film. He pushes down the voice in his head arguing that no amount of photos will ever come close to the real thing, because he doesn’t want to think about that right now, he doesn’t want to think about the number of days he has left before he has to return home.

After breakfast, he absolutely does not spend twenty minutes standing by his suitcase agonising over what to wear. He also _does not_ spend an extra five minutes in front of the mirror trying to style his hair, hating himself throughout the entire process, fingers running through his fringe in a repeatedly frustrated motion.

Dressing to impress the improbably real mermaid he only just met isn’t exactly how he pictured this trip going. It’s funny how life can be like that sometimes.

When he’s finally somewhat satisfied with how he looks, he stuffs his laptop and his camera in a bag and finally heads out. Previously he would have blanched at the idea of bringing his laptop anywhere _near_ sand or water, but he’d promised Minhyuk that he’d bring photos to show him and everything is backed up on his laptop’s hard drive.

He retraces his steps across the beach from yesterday, the morning sun already uncomfortably warm against his back, until he finds the caverns and tide-pools again, careful as he picks his way over the slippery rocks. A concussion isn’t exactly what he needs right now; he’s indulging in enough hallucinations as it is.

_This would all be so much easier if he had a phone_ , he thinks as he scans the rock pools below to see if he can spot Minhyuk somewhere in the shallows, after regaining his balance on a particularly lethal rock. He’s not sure if he should just wait around for him to show up or whether he should call out to him or something, and he’s relieved when finds him waiting at the edge of the same deep pool as before, arms crossed as he beams up at Kihyun and starts waving excitedly.

“You came!”

Kihyun kind of wants to kick whoever’s ass made Minhyuk sound so relieved when says that. “I figured you were better company than the old lady that lives next door,” he says jokingly as he approaches, shifting his bag off of his shoulder so he can lower himself to sit cross-legged by the water’s edge. “I also still wasn’t sure whether I’d dreamt you up or not, so I’m back to reassure myself of my sanity more than anything.”

“You can grope my tail again if you want a refresher,” Minhyuk teases, eyes alight with mischief.

Kihyun hates the way the words make him blush so easily. “I think I’ll pass,” he grumbles. He reaches behind to fish his laptop out of his bag, using it as an excuse to hide his face. “I brought photos.”

“Oh!” Minhyuk’s eyes go wide and he immediately surges forward, the water surging and splashing around him.

“Careful!” Kihyun chastises, recoiling as he tries to pull the laptop as far out of Minhyuk’s immediate reach as possible. “I can show you but try to avoid touching it; I’m so screwed if any water gets on my computer.”

Minhyuk backs away, apologising profusely, and Kihyun smiles when he starts swimming around in impatient circles as he boots his computer up. Even though he’s basically half-fish, he reminds Kihyun more of a puppy than anything, loud and excitable, eyes constantly alight with mischief. Kihyun is used to being around dead-eyed, exhausted art students all the time so he’s not really sure what to make of all the boundless energy he can feel rolling off of Minhyuk in waves, but it’s slightly infectious, like a sugar-rush you get after downing several energy drinks. (Kihyun would know; he’s all too familiar with the feeling of near-deadly levels of caffeine pumping through his veins just to keep himself awake long enough to pull all-nighters on ignored assignments.)

When he finally pulls up a slideshow of his photos, he turns the laptop around in his lap so that Minhyuk can see the screen.

“I mostly take photos of other people,” he explains as he starts to flick through some of his favourite portraits. “I think people are really interesting, and I love to see how much their expressions can change when they’re telling a story or talking about something they love.”

Minhyuk looks captivated, eyes glued to the screen. “They’re so beautiful...Everyone looks so different and unique!”

_They don’t hold a candle to you,_ Kihyun thinks, but doesn’t say. “I meant to ask yesterday, is your hair naturally that colour?”

Minhyuk tugs at a strand of his hair, pulling it in front of his face to stare at it. “I guess; I’ve always had red hair.”

“Your eyes are natural too?”

“Yup.”

“Weird.”

“I have a _tail_ and you think the colour of my hair and eyes is weird?” Minhyuk asks, amused.

Kihyun shrugs. “I don’t think my brain has processed the whole tail thing properly yet, so it’s latching onto the next weirdest thing about you.”

“You flatter me.”

“I didn’t say it looked _bad_ ,” Kihyun mutters, turning his attention back to his computer. “You’re–” he hesitates before looking back up at Minhyuk. “You’re kind of beautiful, you know.”

 Minhyuk blushes, looking immensely pleased. “Oh. Thank you.”

“Anyway,” Kihyun coughs unsubtly as he continues, “I’d love to take some photos of you to add to the portraits sometime, if you don’t mind. Maybe without the tail. I don’t think I’d be able to justify mermaid photos to my photography professor when everything else I take is so...realistic. ”

“Sure! I’d like that,” Minhyuk says with a soft smile.

Kihyun smiles back without really realising it. “Thank you. I’ve also got some photos of places I’ve visited and some really random stuff that I find cool, if you want to see those. They’re not as good or as exciting as my portrait work...apart from people, I mostly like taking photos of objects that I find interesting, even if it’s just really mundane stuff that you see everyday. I just like trying to show people that normal can be beautiful, that maybe sometimes we kind of take the world around us for granted or–” He stops to take a breath, realizing that Minhyuk probably doesn’t want to hear him ramble on like the pretentious art student that he’s probably coming across as. “Yeah. Just. I’m sorry if they seem a little boring.”

Somewhere in the middle of his little photography speech Minhyuk swam around to rest at his side, and when Kihyun turns to look at him he catches the end of some unreadable expression in his eyes.

“I’m sure all your photos are beautiful,” he says, with an encouraging nod for Kihyun to keep going through the slideshow.

Kihyun takes that as the offer it is to continue going through the rest of his photos. He’s always been concerned that people might find his particular brand of photography dull or unoriginal, but Minhyuk brings a whole new light to the visions he’s captured through a lens. He keeps stopping Kihyun every now and then to ask him what a particular object is called or used for, or where  a photo was taken, and Kihyun feels like an idiot for only just now realising that most of the things he sees as everyday objects are probably, for the most part, completely new to Minhyuk. It’s kind of refreshing to see them from Minhyuk’s point of view, and Kihyun feels like it sort of perfectly captures the essence of what he tries to achieve through photography, the showcasing of the ordinary presented as extraordinary.

He suggests they play a game where Minhyuk tries to guess what different objects are used for, and he nearly loses it when Minhyuk asks whether forks are used to comb hair. He’s been trying so hard already not to make any references to the Little Mermaid that he struggles not to make a reference that he’s pretty sure Minhyuk won’t get anyway. Maybe one day he can show him the movie.

After a couple more rounds of Minhyuk asking a million different questions about the places Kihyun has visited, Kihyun’s curiosity eventually gets the better of him he asks Minhyuk whether he’s ever ventured out very far on land before.

Minhyuk’s eyes flick up from the computer screen, where he’d been staring at a picture of a coffee grinder for the past couple of minutes trying to guess what it could possibly be used for, and the question seems to unsettle him. “Only briefly,” he replies, making a vague gesture with his hand.

Kihyun gives him an odd look. “What was it like?” he presses on. He’s not sure why he wants to pursue the question so much, but Minhyuk’s eyes seem to be trying to look at everything but Kihyun’s face and it’s weird. Everything about him so far has been so honest and open, from the way that he talks to his easy-going smile, so it’s strange to see him close off all of a sudden.

“It was fine.”

“Just fine? Where did you go?”

“Kihyun.” Minhyuk’s voice sounds like it holds a warning, and it’s sounds so unlike him that Kihyun is a little bit taken aback.

“Sorry,” he relents. “I...didn’t mean to push. I should have just dropped it.”

“It’s ok,” Minhyuk sighs. He uses his arms as a pillow to rest the side of his head against the pool’s edge as he tilts his head to meet Kihyun’s eyes. “A while back, some people tried t–to capture me. They didn’t get very far, but it’s...not something I like thinking about.”

Something stirs inside Kihyun’s chest, something sharp and painful. Without really meaning to, he finds himself reaching out to brush his fingers against Minhyuk’s temple. “Minhyuk...”

“It’s ok,” Minhyuk repeats. He leans into the touch with a sad smile, his eyes locked with Kihyun’s. “I know not everyone is as bad as them. I know _you’re_ not.”

Kihyun’s thumb brushes along Minhyuk’s cheekbone before he reluctantly withdraws his hand. “You haven’t seen me when I’m hungry,” he jokes lightly. “It can get pretty ugly.”

Minhyuk blinks. “Nothing about you could ever be ugly,” he says seriously.

Kihyun’s breath catches in his throat and he forces himself to look away. “You say that like you didn’t just spend the last ten minutes staring at a stupid photo I took of a coffee grinder trying to figure out what the hell it even was.”

“Why the hell would I know what a _coffee grinder_ is?” Minhyuk protests. “I’m just a simple mermaid living a simple ocean life.”

“You certainly are,” Kihyun mutters, and he has to send Minhyuk a warning glare when he looks like he’s seconds away from splashing him and his laptop with water, consequences be damned.

He’s just glad to see Minhyuk smiling and joking again.

Thankfully, the laptop makes it through the rest of the day in one, dry piece. Kihyun stuffs it back in his bag when they’re done looking at photos and pulls his camera out; that’s what he’s here for, after all, to complete a final assignment. No mermaid, no matter how pretty, should be allowed to derail him from his goal.

Minhyuk tries to be helpful when he offers to take some photos underwater and Kihyun nearly has an aneurysm at the thought of his poor expensive camera floating at the bottom of the ocean. He explains the incompatibility of technology and water to Minhyuk, telling him that any object he brings with him to the beach probably isn’t designed to go underwater.

“I’m not exactly an outdoorsy person,” he explains. “I’m pretty sure nothing I own is designed to last outside.”

“You’ve been outside all day,” Minhyuk points out. “And yesterday, too.”

“Only because you’re here,” Kihyun says before he can stop himself. And well, now the words are out there and he can’t exactly take them back.

Minhyuk beams and relief floods through Kihyun’s system. “Aww, I like spending time with you too!”

Even if he could, Kihyun wouldn’t have the heart to take those words back anyway, not if they make Minhyuk look at him like that.

* * *

At the end of the week, Kihyun has another existential crisis and decides to buy a swimsuit. He almost changes his mind when he reaches the counter, because it’s a stupid idea borne from his idiot brain thinking that by getting in to water it’ll somehow make him feel closer to Minhyuk, but he goes through with it because he’s stubborn and because he can’t stop imagining Minhyuk’s smile. 

_This is so stupid,_ he thinks to himself the whole drive between the store and the beach.

_This is so ridiculously stupid._

He’s halfway to the usual spot when he starts to second-guess himself again and he nearly turns back around with half a mind to drive straight back home and never look back, but he keeps his feet pointed determinedly forwards and takes it one step at a time.

Minhyuk is waiting for him in the exact same spot they’ve been meeting for the past few days, swimming around in slow circles (which Kihyun assumes to be the mermaid equivalent of pacing back and forth) until he spots Kihyun and swims out to meet him, waving as excitedly as always.

Before he can lose his nerve, Kihyun offers Minhyuk a quick greeting before asking him if they can meet out in a more open part of the ocean, where he hopes it’s warmer than the semi-enclosed cave-pool they’ve been spending so much time in. Minhyuk looks a bit puzzled but he nods,  diving beneath the surface with promises to meet Kihyun further out behind the rocks and the caves.

Kihyun picks his way back across the path from which he came, turning right past another jumbled outcrop of rocky tide-pools until he reaches a clear, white stretch of sand leading out to a vast expanse of blue ocean.

Sand gets everywhere as he tries to strip down to the swimsuit he’s wearing underneath his clothes, folding them as neatly as possible and laying them down next to his bag, and he remembers why he dislikes going to the beach so much. And then he looks up across the horizon and spots the unmistakeable red of Minhyuk’s hair, and he thinks that maybe the beach might have some redeeming features after all.

The water feels cold when he takes his first step in, and he’s embarrassed by the small squeak that this elicits from him. He’s infinitely glad that Minhyuk isn’t close enough to hear him yet, but the further he wades out into the waves, the closer Minhyuk’s figure becomes. Kihyun loses sight of him when he dives under, just as he’s reached a level where he’s chest-deep in the water, and he’s so preoccupied with trying to trample down his irrational fear of jellyfish and being careful not to step on anything too dangerous that he misses the tell-tale splash of Minhyuk’s tail behind him. Suddenly something wet and heavy latches itself around his shoulders, and the squeak he’d let out earlier doesn’t seem so bad in comparison to the litany of high-pitched curses he’s currently letting out in a steady stream of profanities.

The weight is suddenly lifted from his shoulders and he whips around to find Minhyuk collapsed in a fit of giggles.

“Minhyuk you asshole!” Kihyun yells. He sends a wave of water crashing down over Minhyuk’s head in retaliation. It’s not exactly an effective move to pull on an aquatic mammal that spends 99.9% of its time living in the water, but at least it helps him regain some sense of pride and vindication.

Minhyuk’s hair is plastered to his face and he’s grinning from ear to ear. “You’re swimming!”

“I can, in fact, swim.”

“You know what I mean! You’re here, swimming with me.”

Kihyun can’t help but feel proud at how touched Minhyuk sounds. 

_This is the happiness you deserve._

“Yeah, and I already regret it; thank you for shaving ten years off my life expectancy.” He tries his best to glare, but they both know it’s not nearly genuine enough.

“Oh lighten up, grumpy-pants,” Minhyuk teases as he splashes him back. “It’s a beautiful day, let’s have some fun!”

Minhyuk’s idea of fun mostly consists of unceremoniously splashing around as he chases Kihyun around, delighting in the way Kihyun reacts every time he feels something weird brush against his legs. He tries to reassure him that nothing dangerous lives in the area, and that he’d warn Kihyun if anything tried to attack him, but it’s a bit difficult to listen to coming from Minhyuk when not even two minutes later he’s trying to toss seaweed at Kihyun’s face.

Kihyun can barely keep up with Minhyuk in the ocean and he wouldn’t readily admit to anyone that he’s actually having fun, but he can’t help the enjoyment that he feels building up inside, threatening to burst from his chest every time he manages to pull Minhyuk underwater by the tail or when Minhyuk teases him by spraying water in his face, unable to carry it through most of the time because he’s laughing so hard. He’s caught up in this little universe of warmth and joy and it’s unlike anything he’s ever really felt before.

He grows tired a lot faster than Minhyuk does and eventually has to call for a break. He doesn’t expect Minhyuk to follow him all the way to the shore, but when he collapses on top of his towel on the sand, Minhyuk is right there next to him. 

“Aren’t you going to like, dry out or something?” he asks, unable to mask the concern in his voice when he turns to look at him.

“I’m only half-fish,” Minhyuk points out, shaking his head to try and wring some of the water out of his hair. “The half-human part of me can be quite comfortable out of the water.”

And well, Kihyun doesn’t really know enough about mermaids to dispute it, so he lies back on his towel and closes his eyes to rest for a bit.

He doesn’t really expect Minhyuk to be able to lie still for a more than a couple of minutes so he’s not all that surprised when he cracks an eye open a while later only to find him building what appears to be his fourth sandcastle.

“I saw some families building them with their kids and thought it looked fun,” Minhyuk explains when Kihyun asks him about it. He places the last of his decorative shells and leans back to examine his handiwork. “I think I’ve gotten pretty good at it.”

One of the towers on the second castle collapses and Kihyun snorts. “Maybe keep practicing?”

Minhyuk collects the ashes of the fallen castle and promptly dumps them on Kihyun’s chest. “It’s art, you wouldn’t understand.”

“That’s _my_ line, idiot,” Kihyun grumbles, trying to dust the sand off of him. It gets all over him, the majority of it going down his swimsuit, and he complains that he’ll have to get back into the ocean to rinse off now. Minhyuk just seems delighted at the prospect of finally returning to the water.

He’s barely taken a step forward when Minhyuk makes a plaintive noise, and when he turns around Minhyuk has his arms stretched out in a grabbing motion, like a child waiting for their parent to pick them up.

“I need help,” he whines. “I can’t make it back by myself.”

Kihyun allows himself a moment of hesitation, a moment to worry that he’s not strong enough or that carrying Minhyuk in his arms like the lead in a romantic comedy might just give him a permanent blush on his face; and then he squashes the worry down as far is it will go, ignoring the soft noise of surprise Minhyuk makes when he reaches down to scoop him up in his arms.

He’s not exactly light, which Kihyun attributes mainly to the large fish tail, but he manages to carry him the few steps forward into the shallow water and sends a silent thankful prayer to Hoseok for forcing him to join the gym again. Minhyuk pinches his red cheeks and teasingly calls him his hero, and it’s a wonder Kihyun doesn’t immediately fling him into the ocean.

They swim until lunchtime (Kihyun brought sandwiches) and then again until the late afternoon once Kihyun’s finished resting some more after eating. Minhyuk is a bit less boisterous but he still teases, sending Kihyun cheeky winks as he swims around him in playful circles and pretending to see a jellyfish just so he can cling to Kihyun’s side. Kihyun only gets more and more flustered as the day goes on; he tries to pretend that Minhyuk’s touches are accidental, that he smiles are playful rather than seductive, but they’ve been dancing around each other so much that they’re both beginning to recognize the subtle undertones of flirtation underlying their interactions like a current of electricity.

Kihyun isn’t sure how he knows; it’s something in Minhyuk’s eyes, maybe, something shining in the golden depths that wants to draw him in, to make him understand. Or maybe it’s the way Minhyuk can’t seem to keep his hands to himself, finding any excuse he can to brush a finger here, to slide an arm around there. He’s not sure how it starts or who make the first move, but he finds himself responding in kind, dropping hints in his intonation, hoping his eyes are able to communicate back just how much he wants to let himself be drawn into Minhyuk’s touch. Somewhere between all the teasing and the talking Kihyun finds himself itching to be closer still, and it’s difficult to resist the urge to find Minhyuk’s hand and to pull him forward, to see that soft smile and those beautiful, infinite pools of molten gold up close.

So he doesn’t resist.

With a gentle “Hey” he’s reaching out for Minhyuk, fingers hooking around his wrist and tugging lightly, asking for permission.

Minhyuk comes to him willingly, body pulled into Kihyun’s orbit by some invisible force. “Hey,” he says back, the tell-tale crinkle of a smile already tugging at his lips and at the corners of his eyes.

Kihyun wants to say something more, wants to say something stupid and romantic, words that Minhyuk deserves to hear, but they wouldn’t be enough. He uses the hand that isn’t holding Minhyuk’s wrist to cup his cheek, the movement hesitant at first but growing more sure when Minhyuk’s eyelids seem to flutter at the contact as he leans into the touch, an encouragement to keep going, that _this is ok_.

Minhyuk leans forward then, all of his attention focused on Kihyun as if he’s somehow the most captivating thing he’s ever seen, and it’s all Kihyun can do to stop himself from crumbling under the weight of all the affection held in Minhyuk’s gaze. He presses their foreheads together, and they’re so close that he can feel Minhyuk’s breath ghosting across his lips on every exhale.

Just like their transition from playful teasing to _maybe there’s more between us_ , it’s hard to say who bridges the gap first when they kiss. Minhyuk’s lips are soft just like his smiles, and when he moves to deepen the kiss Kihyun can taste the ocean on his tongue. His heart swells at the feeling of how right it feels, their lips slotting together so perfectly that any movement they make seems to be done in perfect harmony. Minhyuk keeps leaning into Kihyun’s space even though they feel impossibly close as it is, tilting his head at just the right angle that Kihyun can only sigh into the kiss and slide his arms around Minhyuk’s neck until he can run his fingers through his hair like he’s been itching to do for days.

Their foreheads stay pressed together even after their lips have parted. Kihyun’s eyes are closed but he can feel Minhyuk’s smile, and he’s sure his smile is obvious too.

“You know, I–I think I like you a lot,” Minhyuk murmurs into the shared silence.

Kihyun presses another kiss to Minhyuk’s lips. “Me too." 

He’s not sure what’s stranger, that he seems to have fallen for an  _actual,_ real-life mermaid, or that he might actually enjoy spending time at the beach. (Although, the latter is rather dependent on the first.)

Kihyun is so far beyond convincing himself that Minhyuk is a hallucination, or that all this time he’d just been visiting him to keep him company. He recognizes that a deep attachment is forming between them, and he fully realizes that he’s an idiot and that this is complicated and can’t last, but he can’t find it within himself to stop. The more time he spends with Minhyuk, the more difficult he finds it to leave. And right now, leaving feels like an insurmountable herculean task.

It’s then that he remembers what Minhyuk said earlier that day, about being comfortable enough out of the water, and he’s filled with this certainty, this conviction, that he wants to bring him back to the little beach house, to show him more of _his_ world on land. It’s probably something that requires effort and planning in advance, but Kihyun needs to be close to Minhyuk tonight, needs to have him by his side.

“Come back with me tonight,” he says before he can second-guess himself. “To the beach house,” he clarifies.

Minhyuk lifts his head from where it had been resting at the crook of Kihyun’s neck to look at him I surprise. “I–do you think it’s even possible?”

 Kihyun shrugs, hoping to convey just how little there is right now that could stop him from trying. “I’d have to carry you the whole way, but it’s not too far.”

Minhyuk tucks his head against Kihyun’s neck again and hums in contemplation.

“Ok,” he says after a beat. “I want to try.”

And so, it’s with great difficulty that Kihyun manages to bring Minhyuk back to the beach house. They wrap a towel around his tail and Kihyun carries him bridal-style, and it works fine at first, but then the full day of swimming seems to catch up with Kihyun and he starts to get tired a lot quicker than he’d intended. It really isn’t that far to the house though, so he powers through, muscles straining with the effort of carrying both Minhyuk and his bag, and he all but stumbles through the front door when they finally arrive.

He deposits Minhyuk on the living room sofa, collapsing next to him with a sigh.

“I can’t believe we made it.”

Minhyuk had kept quiet for a lot of the journey, but now that they’re in a new location his questions start firing off at a million miles a minute. Kihyun tries to answer his queries as best as he can, smiling at some of them and telling long, exaggerated stories at others. They’re only interrupted when Minhyuk’s stomach starts to grumble loudly, and Kihyun laughs and says he’ll start making dinner; he introduces Minhyuk to the television before he goes though, and laughs even more when Minhyuk seems to settle on an episode of Spongebob Squarepants.

Kihyun returns to the living room shortly after carrying two bowls of pasta, one of which Minhyuk accepts gratefully, and they eat while finishing the next episode. Minhyuk has quite an appetite for human food, and Kihyun is worried that he has somehow spoiled him for when he has to return to the ocean. After they finish, he searches around for an old copy of the Little Mermaid that he _knows_ he owns; Minhyuk looks at him a little incredulously when Kihyun holds up the DVD case triumphantly, but he allows himself to be pulled in for a cuddle once Kihyun has got the DVD playing.

It feels oddly normal and domestic. For a certain amount of time Kihyun nearly forgets that Minhyuk is a mermaid at all, until the movie eventually ends and he seems more on edge than usual. Minhyuk is lying quietly against Kihyun’s chest, so Kihyun nudges him gently.

“What’s up?” he prompts.

“Well...” Minhyuk hesitates. Kihyun can feel his reluctance in the way he’s stopped tracing patterns along Kihyun’s side. “You know how I said I was comfortable on land?”

At that, Kihyun freezes. “Oh.”

And Minhyuk must be following his train of thought, because he rushes to clarify “No don’t worry! I don’t necessarily need to go back to the beach, I just...”

“You need to be in some sort of water?” Kihyun finishes.

Minhyuk bites his lip and nods. “It doesn’t have to be much, I just...feel like I need _some_ contact with water.”

“I think I have an idea,” Kihyun says, pressing a kiss to Minhyuk’s temple.

The crowning glory of the beach house, one that Kihyun is infinitely grateful for in this instance, is the size of the bathtub. Kihyun’s mother had insisted that they redecorate the bathroom some years ago, and it somehow became the fanciest part of the house and includes a _huge_ bathtub.

He goes to fill it up while Minhyuk is busy looking through some old photo albums Kihyun gave him; after that, it’s just a matter of carrying Minhyuk past the kitchen and his bedroom until he can push the bathroom door open and gently lower him into the tub.

He’s not sure what to do after that, but then Minhyuk is tugging at his sleeve, and the motion combined with a pleading look in his eyes is all the invitation Kihyun needs to climb in next to him. It feels a little bit strange getting in while he’s still wearing clothes, but then Minhyuk is wrapping his arms firmly around him with a content sigh.

“Better?” Kihyun asks.

“Better.”

They’re quiet for a moment, their words lost in the dark of the bathroom, illuminated by a single candle flickering on the bathroom counter. Kihyun had hoped that it might make the bathroom feel a little more warm and inviting, but now the darkness just feels oppressive. Or maybe it’s just because of the words Kihyun has been hesitating to say all day, weighing dark and heavy on his mind.

“I probably have to leave tomorrow.”

It sounds awful and hollow to his own ears. He can feel Minhyuk tense beneath him.

“I figured you’d have to go at some point,” he says, and the resignation in his voice is ten times more oppressive than the dark.

Kihyun closes his eyes and takes a deep, steadying breath. “I don’t want to go.”

“I don’t _want_ you to go,” Minhyuk says, his arms tightening around Kihyun, leaning down to kiss his cheek, his nose, any part of him that he can reach. “But I know I can’t keep you here forever.”

“Maybe one day we can figure something out,” Kihyun says hopefully, although he knows it’s no real consolation when they’re holding each other so close right now in the present, unable to contemplate what the future could possibly mean to them.

“Maybe,” Minhyuk echoes. “Let’s...let’s not think about it for now. Not while you’re still here.”

“Sure.”

“Okay.”

“You know,” Kihyun starts, his thumb tracing along Minhyuk’s cheek, “sometimes I still can’t believe you’re real.”

“Need to grope my tail again?”

It’s enough for now, to hear an echo of the usual laughter back in Minhyuk’s voice.

* * *

Leaving the next day is one of the hardest things Kihyun has had to do in a long while, but unfortunately he has a life and responsibilities beyond this beach and he’d be kidding himself if he thought he could stay forever within this bubble that they’d created for themselves.

“Promise me you’ll come back to visit? 

He can’t take the look in Minhyuk’s eyes, like he’s one breath away from falling apart.

“I promise.”

The memories and photos he has from the trip will never come close to the reality of all the beauty contained within Minhyuk’s laughter or all the wonder he holds in his eyes, but they’ll have to be enough for now.

It’s funny how you can spend so long believing that you’re merely indulging in an impossible hallucination, only to come out of it wishing that reality were nearly half as beautiful.

**Author's Note:**

> GOD I DON'T EVEN KNOW HALF OF THIS IS JUST NONSENSE AND THEN I MADE MYSELF SAD AT THE END


End file.
